Andrew Gonnella Injury: Maryland Loses Offensive Line Leader to 'Gruesome' Injury

Adding injury to insult in Maryland's 26-21 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, the Terrapins have lost starting left guard Andrew Gonnella for the season.

Gonnella suffered a serious knee injury Saturday. On Sunday, Maryland head coach Randy Edsall told The Washington Times that Gonnella would miss the rest of the season after he underwent a very serious knee operation in Atlanta on Saturday.

The prognosis did not look good from the moment the injury occurred in the fourth quarter of the Terrapins' loss. Gonnella was down for nearly 15 minutes before being carted off by an ambulance. It seemed worse when the announcers on ESPNU said the network would not show replays because of the gruesome nature of the injury.

Edsall would not elaborate on the state of the injury to Gonnella, but when you look at the comments Maryland safety Eric Franklin gave after the game, it gets even worse.

I didn't see what happened, but I heard people saying there was bone sticking out, Franklin said. We just have to keep him in our prayers and hope for a speedy recovery.

Gonnella is Maryland's lone senior offensive lineman. They will surely experience some growing pains without him. The Terrapins are 2-3 nearly halfway through the season and are off to a 1-1 start in ACC play.

And the offensive line was one of the team's strengths. Its run game is averaging 4.9 yards per carry, and the line has allowed only four sacks this season. Without its leader, the unit will be hard-pressed to keep up those steady numbers.